


Prince of Attilan

by Blue_Hood



Category: Inhumans (Comics), Inhumans (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Coronation, F/M, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Kid Fic, Royalty, Wakes & Funerals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 22:01:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21125936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Hood/pseuds/Blue_Hood
Summary: Following his father's death, Max is confused.





	Prince of Attilan

Max didn’t understand when the royal guards returned with a box instead of his father. The royal advisors instantly began making arrangements for him to become the new Crown Prince. His father had been heir because he had more royal blood than Aunt Crystal, the only other candidate. According to succession laws, Aunt Medusa would remain queen if Uncle Blackagar died.

Max didn’t care, he didn’t understand how the box was his father. Why were people saying they were sorry? Where was his father? What do you mean he’s gone? Gone where? Everyone wore black. His father liked black, his father used to say it was a royal color. Why was everyone wearing a royal color?

Aunt Crystal told him to dress up for the ceremony and kneel when the talking stopped. They called it a coronation but those were for babies or weddings. Uncle Blackagar put a crown on his head as one of the nobles said some stuff. No, not _ a _ crown. No! His father’s crown. Max jumped to his feet and ran away from the ceremony. He didn’t want the crown, he wanted his father. As he ran, he pulled his dress clothes off. Aunt Crystal let him wear his favorite shirt underneath, the one his father said his mother picked out. Tears streaming down his face, he ran until he tripped and fell. Then he looked around, he was far from the castle, in a field of some sort. He crawled, stumbling to his feet and ran to a shed. Hiding behind it, he cried, struggling to keep quiet so people wouldn’t find him.

Max was reduced to kicking dirt by the time Lockjaw found him. Unaware of the complicated situation, the royal hound licked the young prince’s face. Earning a chuckled “Lockjaw.” He pulled the dog close, muttering into his neck “I can’t do it, buddy, I can’t take his crown.” The big, brown dog laid down, listening to Max talk about what was wrong.

The hound was originally given to Crystal when she moved into the royal palace after her parents’ death. Lockjaw taught Maximus, the first one, to share. Not long after the sisters moved in, Blackagar and Medusa were betrothed. King Thakorr of Atlantis, one of Attilan’s strongest alliances, gifted the often moody prince with Triton, a green fish with purple eyes. The king swore Triton would live to see Maximus’ children. He was right but he didn’t mention the fish would outlive his owner.

When Max had calmed down, Lockjaw stood. The young prince was leaning heavily on his canine friend as they came out of hiding. A royal guard tried to pick the prince up, which caused petulant whining unbefitting a possible future king. Before he could scold the boy, another guard held up a hand for stop and knelt in front of the boy “Lockjaw cannot carry you but perhaps you could still keep a hand on him.” Max remembered his father jokingly calling the dog Lord Lockjaw, which almost brought him to tears again. He nodded and reached out for the guard who made the suggestion. Taking him from his comrade, the guard whistled and Lockjaw came over. Setting the prince’s hand atop the white pronged mark on his dog’s forehead, the man said, “I believe we are ready to return to the palace.” The journey back was uneventful.

Once home, Max squirmed until the guard let him go then ran toward his room, calling “Lockjaw.” The dog obediently followed him, going to the prince’s chambers where both of the royal pets now resided. Max jumped on his bed, still miserable yet out of tears.

About an hour after the aborted coronation, Queen Medusa came in to find her nephew curled around Lockjaw on his bed. She decided against waking him and instead, checked the chart under Triton’s aquarium. Maximus had taught his son how to care for his pet from a young age, the crown prince had always been extremely possessive of the Atlantean gift. As she fed Triton, Medusa recalled a very memorable instance when King Agnar and Queen Rynda actually threatened to return Triton. Her then-future brother-in-law had decided that if he couldn’t take Triton, he wasn’t going anywhere. Thankfully, this decision only applied to trips outside the kingdom or else his parents would have carried out the threat. However, Prince Namor was getting married and Attilan’s entire royal family was invited. After much kicking and screaming on the young prince’s part, Crystal got Maximus to stop being a brat by hinting that the Atlanteans probably knew all kinds of tricks that would help Triton. While there, Maximus pestered the scientists their hosts pointed him to. Surprisingly, the pre-teen was able to, not only keep up with, but build on their science. After discussing this revelation with their advisors, his parents had him privately tutored rather than sending him to boarding school with his brother and cousins. Lockjaw temporarily became his while Crystal was away. The arrangement also cut back on how many diplomatic missions he had to go on. In fact, after his son was born, Maximus did not leave Attilan for three years. He and Crystal were the default choices for most missions, the former being the crown prince and the latter being the head of foreign affairs.

Medusa checked off Triton’s feeding and put a plus sign next to the line, meaning she gave him a little too much. From the bed, Max asked “What are you doing in here?”

Spinning around, the queen saw her nephew sitting up, still holding Lockjaw, “I think I owe you an explanation.”

“Dad’s dead,” the prince’s voice was void of emotion.

“Yes.”

“The box was a coffin.”

“Yes.”

“Why aren’t you crowning Crystal?”

“What?” She hadn’t been expecting him to be so- she expected more screaming and declarations of it’s not fair than this.

“Crystal’s more of a royal than I am.”

That was technically true, Medusa mused. Maximus had returned from one of his trips (to a science convention, they never had to force him to go to those) with a woman. He ignored everyone and just took the woman to his quarters to get settled in. Attilan’s nobility had gotten used to the crown prince’s way.

He could be coldly logical one minute, an explosion of emotion the next. When he was younger, he’d been characterized as moody. The royal advisors assured his parents that he’d grow out of it. By the time it became clear that wasn’t the case, they were all too dazzled by his intellect. Had anyone asked, they’d just call it a genius quirk. There had been rumors that Maximus loved his son so because the boy was just like him. If not for the mystery woman- Louise- and his obvious warring emotions when she died giving birth, one could almost accuse Maximus of cloning himself.

“Well?”

Medusa was shaken from her musings by her nephew, “Did I ever tell you how your father acquired Triton?”

“Dad said that Namor’s father gave him Triton as a birthday gift.”

“Do you know why King Thakorr thought to gift him a pet?”

“Dad really loved Lockjaw.”

Medusa nodded “He loved Triton so much that Crystal had to trick him into attending Namor’s wedding?”

“Which is how they found out that dad’s super smart.”

“Your dad told you?”

“Yeah.”

“What do you know about your mother?”

“Dad was trying to cure her when she died and she died the day I was born.”

Medusa had forgotten about Maximus’ insistence that it wasn’t the birth that killed Louise. Looking back, she had to admit that they had assumed because she died during the birthing process, the birth killed her. “Did you know that your father did not tell anyone for a week why he brought a woman home? Traditionally, he would be required to present her to the king and queen, because they were living together and that meant she was living in the royal quarters.” Medusa chose her words carefully, unsure how her nephew would react. “But, back before Namor’s wedding, your father’s temperament was written off as a phase he’d grow out of. I remember your grandparents learned to love Lockjaw because they thought he was helping Maximus out of that phase. After Namor’s wedding, the advisors called it a genius quirk.”

“I’m well aware of the clone joke.”

“When Maximus brought this outsider back from one of his trips and just set her up in his own chambers, he was breaking a lot of rules. However, we knew he’d explain when he was ready.”

“What should’ve happened? Dad always said that it doesn’t matter.”

“For starters, he should have sent word ahead and stayed back until he got permission to bring your mother into the palace. Then he should have presented her to the king and queen, we would have placed her in guest chambers. He should not have courted her without permission.”

“He didn’t.” If there was one thing that Medusa had learned from her conversation with her nephew thus far, it was Maximus told his son everything.

“What do-?”

“He didn’t court her, not here at least.”

“What?”

Max looked her in the eye “Do you really think dad brought a random woman home?”

Suddenly things made a lot more sense. Maximus didn’t let people in easily. Sharing was not natural or easy to him- something he often blamed on being the ignored prince, completely unaware that the behavior caused people to avoid him- yet he set Louise up in his personal chambers. Most people had to work in the palace for a decade just for Maximus to stop scaring them with his rather nasty nature. The prince had once watched guards training then pulled rank to make them do it his way and now, Attilan had the most fearsome military in the world. Louise was perfectly fine being around him. Her own bullheaded nature mixed well with his. Maximus banned servants from entering his chambers unless he was present to supervise, due to Triton’s feeding schedule being erased once or twice. One needed a scientific background and his written permission to enter his laboratory, even the royal family was banned. Louise had the background but never needed the written permission, Maximus actually scared the guards away from their posts outside his laboratory when they tried to bar her entry.

The more Medusa thought about it, the more it made sense that Maximus must have had a history with Louise extending further than one conference. “I suppose you have a point.” Medusa whistled and Lockjaw lifted his head “Let’s go see Black Bolt.”

Max smiled at his uncle’s nickname. When his father was very young, his grandparents tried to get him to say his brother’s name, which is pronounced Black-a-gar Bolt-a-gone. Apparently they didn’t sound it out very well for him because when the little prince tried, he butchered it before deciding Black Bolt was better anyway. Whenever they were fighting, Maximus would teasingly call his brother Black Bolt. Hence, why his son knew the story. As they were heading towards the small dining room that the royal family preferred to use, Max asked “How come Uncle Blackagar and I have nicknames but you and Aunt Crystal don’t? How did you guys get not weird names?”

“Not weird?”

“Less weird. Blackagar, Agnar, Karnak, dad said names like that are weird to the rest of the world. He said Crystal and Max are more normal. I don’t know if Maximus is what Max is usually short for but that was the example dad used.”

“You know a lot.”

“Dad didn’t like to leave me alone after mom died and coloring gets boring when stuff catches fire.”

“I suppose it would.”

“How come you and Aunt Crystal got normal names?”

“We didn’t, Medusa is short for Medusalith and Crystal is short for Crystalia.”

“I think I like the nicknames better,” Max said quickly, eyes widening before, “Wait, why do people call you Queen Medusa and Princess Crystal but they always use my whole name?”

“Your father was very moody, he hated nicknames.”

“He also scared people, how?”

“He watched our guards training once and decided he knew better than all of the military leaders in Attilan. He told the guards ’I am a prince and you will do what I say’ then he took over training. They didn’t take him seriously until the next time they trained against another team of guards and won easily. The only difference between the teams’ training was that your father got ahold of his team’s schedule, he’d make sure they kept doing things his way by pointedly opening a window or walking by the training grounds. His way made them better.” Medusa chuckled “Once they figured that out, he had to redo all of the military stuff. He hated it because he couldn’t do science while he was reworking our military.”

“Woah.”

They sat down, Medusa helping her nephew into his seat before taking her own beside Blackagar “He also had a temper. He could be okay one minute and throwing a tantrum the next.” No one brought up the coronation, Medusa and Blackagar had canceled it. Max would be the heir on paper and that’s it.


End file.
